Deadly Flowers
by ilovemybunny
Summary: Harry's been having odd dreams recently, and unfortunately they don't seem to be as harmless as he first thought.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaime****r:** Obviously, I don't own anything from the Harry Potter world.

**Summery: **Harry's been having odd dreams recently, and unfortunately they don't seem to be as harmless as he first thought.

At first he hadn't thought much of the dreams he had been experiencing ever since arriving back at Hogwarts for his sixth year. Don't misunderstand. He did think about them, but he had thought they were just dreams leaking through from _his _memories. Just horrible Tom Riddles memories of himself and another girl fluttering through his brain.

At first he had thought Voldermort had been playing another trick on him to lure him out again. However none of these dreams had anything important that could take him out of the school grounds again. Just memories of Tom Riddle and the girl, both just past Hogwarts years, traveling together. While this was interesting in it's own morbid way, it didn't seem like the type of thing Voldermort would willingly share with anyone, much less the person he most wanted dead in the world.

Therefore, he could only come to one conclusion. These memories had been passed to him through the link which Voldermort had magnified last year quite by accident and was therefore nothing to worry his pretty little head over now was there? It was such a clarifying revelation that he mentally patted himself for his quick thinking and decided not to worry himself on the subject any longer. It wasn't like the visions he had last year and they weren't affecting him so nothing wrong here.

Everything a-okay.

Except there _was_ something very wrong and his previous clever thinking suddenly didn't hold up in his mind as strongly as he wanted it to. Turning to peer out the tower window of his dorm room showed a crescent moon. No thoughts of wandering werewolves to distract him from horrible thoughts. Slipping out of bed he walked to the window and stared out to the forest just beyond the school grounds where the dream had taken place.

She'd been all alone in this dream. That's it you ask? That's what's waking dear Harry from his slumber in shakes and covered in sweat? Obviously the Boy Who Lived was losing it. Except he wasn't. If _he_ wasn't in this dream then it meant that these dreams weren't _his _memories after all. He tried to think of anyone he might have caught those dreams from but no one came to mind. Not so clever any more was he? Despite his grades he did pride himself on his intelligence...most of the time anyway. These dreams were _her_ memories.

He could feel the pounding of his heart beat against his chest and shivers ran up his spine. He wasn't thinking clearly, he was obviously too tired for such mental strain and the dream was obviously still affecting him as it had been a while since his thoughts had felt so clouded and unclear.

Okay. Breath in. Out. In. Out.

Think.

What had she been doing?

She had been gathering hellebore in the forest and unlike tonight it had been a full moon. Humming a melody he didn't know happily as she picked the deadly flowers as if she hadn't a care in the world. Perhaps she didn't – although the collection of hellebore suggested she had a very definite use of them in mind. The innocent tune haunted his mind and he wondered exactly what she had intended to use those flowers for

He realized his mind had settled back into normalcy and the fog had lifted. The dreams hadn't before left him feeling so disconnected from himself. Should he tell someone? Hermione would certainly think so, but she had a habit of overreacting which more often then not left him frustrated and angry. No matter how much he cared for her and hated lying to her he couldn't tell her about this. At least not until he knew what was happening. Which left him back to square one, and if he couldn't tell Hermione, he wouldn't tell anyone else. He wouldn't do that to her.

Maybe it would be best to travel down into the forest himself. Find that clearing and see for himself whether it was a truly real or if it was all just his mind making it all up. He was beginning to hope that was what it was.

Just his mind finally cracking from all the strain it had been placed with all of his life.

Making his mind up, he grabbed his invisibility cloak, put on his trainers and grabbed his firebolt. He wasn't going to risk wondering through the halls tonight. No one could see him.

Glancing down the tower he eyed the ground below. No one around. Good.

Deep breath.

Now.

Jump.

The next thing he knew all he could feel was the wind all around him. Opening his eyes and he could see as came closer to the foot of the tower. His stomach was going wild and he felt as if he was screaming even as his mouth was clamped shut.

Tightening his grip on his firebolt, he quickly maneuvered himself so he was sitting on the broom and willed it to fly with him.

The wind stopped.

He was only about 10 meters above the ground. Once again, deep breath. In. Out.

Flying as close the ground as he could he moved his way through the grounds and closer to the forest. Hagrid's hut was now only a few feet away from him and he could he the thundering snores from within.

Before moving any further, he wrapped the cloak around himself. There were too many creatures in this forest that would tell Hagrid of a student wondering through their forest...or too many that would try to eat him. He didn't like either of those options.

Maneuvering himself so he was flying with the higher branches of the trees but still blocked from the view of the sky, he made his way through the forest as quickly as his broom would allow him. Within a few minutes, he could see a clearing coming closer. The hellebore had supposedly been just past the clearing. He could still hope there wouldn't be any there. Although the fact that he found the clearing was pretty damning already.

No.

He wouldn't believe it until he saw the hellebore with his own eyes.

Flying down, he landed in the middle of the clearing. Glancing around with his eyes, he stood as still as he could. His breathing he could hear loudly and he went to grab...

FUCK!

He left his wand in the dorm room.

Gathering his courage, he walked quickly the edge of the clearing and to the throng of trees that had surrounded bushes full of hellebore in his dream.

Please.

Please let there be nothing but more trees.

Fate, however was not on his side this night. Peering round one of the trees he could clearly see the many hellebore flowers that stood proudly in the night. That decided it then. The dreams were real memories, of that he could be sure, but from an unknown source and that was what worried him the most.

He didn't know anything about this girl other then she had obviously been Tom Riddle's companion before he had truly crossed over into the being that was known as Voldermort. It was obvious from the memories that she had thought very highly of Riddle, had probably loved him or perhaps had been forced to come along with him under the influence of the imperious curse. He didn't know.

Kneeling down, he plucked one of the flowers from the ground in the same way she had in his dream. He would need further proof in the morning and having one of these flowers would prove it to himself. His heart was no longer pounding against his chest loudly, but was now steady and strong.

Wiping dirt of his trousers as he stood from the ground, he turned around and made his way back to the Gryffindor Tower as quietly as could.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaime****r:** Obviously, I don't own anything from the Harry Potter world.

**Summery: **Harry's been having odd dreams recently, and unfortunately they don't seem to be as harmless as he first thought.

**Authors Note: **Hiya :) I just thought I'd say hi to all of you wonderful people who have decided that my story is worth reading for another chapter. Very special thanks goes to **Stardust of Orion **and **Maikanon** for reviewing, although at this current moment in time I don't really want to reveal too much by answering your comments...although this in itself is answering it...sort of...

Well anyway, hope you guys enjoy reading and I obviously hope you'll review:)

Nice comments are always appreciated.

Chapter 2

The following week left Harry exhausted as he tried to juggle studying and his social life when all he truly wanted was a restful nights sleep. The dreams he been experiencing had left him tired and cranky, which with his meager occlumency skills was not all that easy to hide. While it was still only the beginning of the year one might think that there wasn't much studying to be done...well no. It appeared all the professors had decided that for them to learn all they needed to pass their exams at the end of the two year NEWT course, they needed the students to cram as much information as they could in as short amount of time as they possibly could. Therefore Harry was left to studying and completing his assignments in a continuous half dazed and half stressed state, which meant that the first few assignments that he'd handed in had been returned to him with a large red **D **attached to the top of the parchment. Even if they had still been being graded in muggle terms, the work was poor and Hermione was already beginning to show her concern.

As a precaution against Harry falling behind in his grades in such an important year, Hermione had then announced that the three of them would all take to studying in the library after classes until at least dinner time. This had obviously been met with resistance (on Ron's part as Harry had at the time been half asleep on the sofa) but Hermione had enforced the issue by declaring if he didn't, she would owl his mother informing her that he was refusing to study. Ron had quickly agreed after this threat had been made and the grunt which came from Harry's direction was taken as acceptance by Hermione.

After waking and finding out what he had unknowingly agreed to, Harry locked himself in an unused classroom for the rest of the evening to make a cauldron of Invigoration draught. At the very least this would help with his studying while he tried to figure out how to get a better nights rest. Even though he would still be tired through part of the studying sessions, he was pleased when his next assignments grades were averaging in the E's and while Ron was also happy that his own grades were improving although there was still a large amount of grumbling on his part.

"Why can't we just take one evening off?"

"Hey don't you want to play a game of chess?"

"let's go to the kitchens."

"Did you guys know Tracey Davis and Stephen Cornfoot were caught making out ?"

"Can't we ever do anything different?"

"Lavender says that if Lisa Turpin – you know that Ravenclaw – puts on anymore weight, she's going to have to buy a whole new set of robes soon."

These continuous interruptions had been setting Hermione on edge since they had began and the mention of Lavender – who she had earlier heard the girl mention to Parvati that she (Hermione) always looked so frumpy and boyish – was enough to set off her anger. "Honestly Ronald I don't know when you became such a gossip! We are trying to study here and we don't want to have to hear stupid comments the entire time!"

"Their not stupid comments! Laven-"

"Lavender! Lavender! Lavender! I don't want to hear another word of that dumb bitch!"

Whether it was the way Hermione had been yelling, or her uncharacteristic swearing it was enough to not only silence Ron but the entire roomful of students currently lingering in the library. Harry was now happier than ever that Madame Pince was still at the Great Hall having dinner – if she had heard the yelling there was a chance they would have been banned from the library for the rest of the year. The silence continued for what seemed to be an age and Hermione, who had quickly realized her mistake, had turned red and sunk back down into her chair as the sudden offset of excited whispering started.

Their audience didn't seem to be watching them anymore, they were probably gossiping about what happened and to excited to watch for anymore updates and so Harry was the only one to notice as Ron stormed out of the library without a word to either of them. Well isn't that pleasant. He could understand Ron being upset with Hermione but him as well? What had he done? Oh wait...Padma was rushing out after the idiot now. Lavender would obviously be hearing about this soon and he could imagine her getting her friends together to go against Hermione, and Ron being as angry and frustrated as he was, would probably be right there beside her.

Stupid asshole.

Glancing back to the girl sitting in front of him he noticed – to his horror – that she had started to cry. Silently he stood from the table gathering all the books laid out in front of them and returned them to their places on the bookshelves. Returning to his friend he gathered both their bags over his left shoulder and gently led her out of the room.

* * *

The stars were beautiful tonight.

Shining.

So bright.

She wondered if it would ever be possible to put them out if she tried hard enough...

Better not to risk it.

She continued to stroke the hair of the immobile figure resting in her lap as she stared at the stars above. It was far past curfew and while she would normally be happy to be resting in the dungeons below, tonight she had felt the need for a fresh breeze which would not be possible in the slytherin common rooms.

The prone figure in her lap lay still and as cold as a statue and anyone who may stumble upon them at this moment may believe him to be dead and she supposed in a way he was. At least until she revived him of course, which she was not yet ready to do. He had brought this on himself truly. Ever since the start of their sixth year he had become distracted and was spending much of his time alone - where she knew not – and was increasingly becoming more distracted even when they were together.

She would have been quite hurt if she hadn't been so angry.

Therefore, as the saying went – desperate times call for desperate measures.

A splash of the draught of living death in his dinner with just a touch of ground hellebore to weaken him so he could not resist. Oh he had certainly tried of course – the potion dose had been small enough that he had enough time to escape from the great hall before anyone had noticed anything was the matter and of course she had followed behind him. As the dinner had just begun, there was no one in the hallway but themselves.

"What have you done to me?" His musical voice was just as captivating as his beautiful face, especially with those low and angry tones they currently held.

"You've been ignoring me recently."

"And your response to that is to kill me?" She could see he was having a harder time now to stay awake. His whole body was shaking and he was leaning forward as if he had been about to fall over himself.

"Don't be so silly, you know I'd never try to kill you," sweat was dripping down his neck from excursion. "You'll just be going to sleep for a while. Don't worry I'll wake you up in the morning in time for class."

"You think I'm worried...about class?" Heavy breathing – he was close to giving in now.

"All I want is to spend more time with you," she said as she moved to where he stood glaring at her with his beautiful blue eyes – just like hers. "So if you're not going be with me of your own free will, well I'm just going to have to force it myself."

"Wh..." What he had been about to say was lost on her as he collapsed to the floor still as a statue. She wondered where they should spend their evening.

Her thoughts were then suddenly interrupted by an owl hooting as it flew past her and she turned her head down.

"I think we could stay here all evening, don't you?"

He didn't reply but she wasn't expecting a response. It was so nice to have her way sometimes – she gave into what Tom wanted most of the time but every now and again her own selfish desires would resurface themselves and she would just have to give in.

Stroking his smooth pale cheek she watched as the wind blew his hair around his face she wondered if beauty this great was truly meant for mortals. Although with her own face of course she had no right to comment. The comments she heard from the boys of all year and the jealous and hateful glances from the girls was all she needed on the subject.

She and Tom had truly been made for each other.

Both so beautiful.

So powerful.

She knew in her heart they were soulmates.

Yet...

Well there wasn't much point dwelling on the cruelty of fate.

Maybe she did want to return to the dungeons now.

Levitating the boy behind her she made her way back to the dorms below – unseen by even the portraits themselves.

* * *

He could barely concentrate on Snape's lecture as he gazed towards the man in the center of the room. With little restful sleep he felt unprepared for defense class today. This ought to be the worst timing possible. Snape would definitely would have noticed his distracted state and when demonstrations began, he would be unwilling victim.

This last nights dream she had been alone in the potions classroom brewing an elixir.

What was it again?

An elixir to..induce euphoria.

Yes. Of course that's what it was.

Seemed like a fun potion to have on hand.

What had she done again?

After placing the cauldron on the flame she had added the peppermint sprigs until it had all turned red.

Add shrivelfig until it all turns turquoise and stir until it becomes blue.

Allowing it to simmer turned it yellow and she then added porcupine quills until it turned blue again.

When it simmered this time it turned pur...

BANG

He gasped as he flew out of his chair, adrenaline pounding through his body and he stared in front of him in horror as saw his professor now standing by his desk with his fist firmly on the table, his furious gaze now upon him.

"I believe Mr Potter," the quiet whisper of Snape's voice only sent shivers running down his spine as he stood frozen. "I asked you a question."

The room was completely silent and Harry didn't dare glance to his classmates. The last time the professor had been this angry had left bruises on his arm for days and an aching head from the jar of dead cockroaches. His response however was not one that would please the man and yet he couldn't stop himself from saying it anyway. His fight or flight reaction had obviously chosen fight.

"What question...sir?" The pause was enough to anger the professor even more. A feat he had not thought possible.

"Out," the whisper had been so quiet that even in the silence of the room the students were unsure of what he said. His preceding word however was deafening. "I SAID OUT! OUT THE LOT OF YOU!"

It was mere seconds later that his classmates were exiting hurriedly out the room and Harry would have gladly joined them if not for the hand that was painfully gripping onto his shoulder. He dared a glance to the door and had a glimpse of Hermione shooting him a frightened look before running out of the classroom herself.

The door slammed shut behind her and was locked before the hand removed itself from it's painful position on Harry's shoulder.

They both turned they're eyes back to one another and yet neither seemed to want to be the one to break the silence. There was no doubt Snape could tell he was feeling rather more confrontational at this moment then he had ever been before and one wrong movement from either of them could end with the both of them in the hospital wing.

The tension in the silence began to grow as they stood there. The best option for the both of them would be to take a step back. To get Dumbledore to be there with them...if only to prevent them from killing each other. There was no else left however and what little sanity that might have existed when Harry's classmates had been there was now long gone.

Only anger and hatred was left and although at the back of his mind he wondered where all this hatred had come from, he pushed all thoughts quickly aside. He couldn't afford to get distracted. The fact that they were student and teacher or that they were technically comrades in war no longer mattered to him and by the look in Snape's eyes the feelings were beyond mutual.

He could feel his heart beating fast as he struggled to keep himself from growling.

His skin was beginning to tingle but he ignored it.

His own breathing was heavy and loud.

The most annoying part of Snape at that moment was how controlled he was compared to himself.

His formal guarded posture ready to strike at any moment.

His even breathing showing no sign of quickening.

His steady gaze upon him.

Infuriating.

Maddening.

There were no more words.

His own body betrayed him now. The quivering of his body turned to frantic shaking and the tingling accumulated to the point where he felt he was being shocked by lightning. He wanted Snape gone. Gone forever. It could be so easy.

However something at that moment caught Snapes attention and his eyes widened as he took a step back.

It was time to end this and Harry knew there was no time like the present.

He smiled as his heart slowed to a normal pace and readied himself to pounce.

They were however rudely interrupted by the sudden explosion of the classroom door and they both ducked under the table to avoid the debris from hitting them.

The anger was suddenly gone in an instant and all it left was bewilderment.

He'd been so close to...to killing Snape.

Why?

For what?

For becoming angry at him in class?

He felt drained of all emotion and the bewilderment left as a numbing tingle settled into the center of his brain.

The last of the debris hit the floor and they both cautiously stood from their hiding place to face the headmaster who was standing in the empty doorway with his wand stretched out in front of him.

Hermione, bless her, was watching the scene from her standing point behind the headmaster.

There was a furious expression on the old wizards face at that moment and he had yet to put down his wand.

Both he and Snape glanced at each other.

It was time to face the music.


End file.
